More than 100 people were evacuated from a pub and one of Oswestry’s busiest roads was shut off amid fears that a fire had broken out in the town’s former Woolworths building.

Police cordoned off the area and evacuated drinkers and staff from the Wetherspoon’s pub in Willow Street.

It followed reports of smoke coming from a second storey window of the vacant store yesterday afternoon.

But firefighters discovered the “smoke” was steam rising from the basement.

They pumped hundreds of gallons of hot water from the cellar. The road outside the store was closed for more th- an three hours during the in- cident, which began at 3pm.

Oswestry fire station watch manager John Davies said the basement flooded with six feet of water because of a burst pipe and the building’s electrical system heated it to about 60 degrees. The water had to be pumped out so crews could locate the fault with the heating system.

Mr Davies said: “The first reports we got was that smoke was coming from the building but it turned out to be steam.

“There is a void from the cellar up to the second story and the steam has risen from the cellar to the window. There was no fire and nobody was injured but there was a lot of water in the cellar.

“We used our pumps to pump out the water and called in Scottish Power to isolate the electric supply to the building.”

Fire crews left at 6.30pm. A cordon was put up by police to shut off part of Willow Street and New Street.